Math Organization Trains New Teachers to Keep Them on the Job

At its annual meeting in April, NCTM included seminars specifically designed to help preservice and new math teachers get a better handle on the math content they’ll have to teach. Novices could also attend seminars on broader teaching topics, including motivating students in math.

NCTM’s initiative was the result of requests from inexperienced math teachers who attended the conference. The organization surveyed aspiring and new educators to plan professional development options to meet their needs. Ultimately, the goal is to help new teachers have positive experiences early in their careers and, NCTM leaders hope, make them want to stick around.

Research done by Richard M. Ingersoll, a professor of education and sociology at the University of Pennsylvania, indicates that approximately 16 percent of all math teachers leave the profession each year. Ingersoll says that math and science teachers don’t leave the profession in higher numbers than new teachers of other subjects. It’s just that the shortage of math and science teachers means that their loss is felt more acutely.

The teachers who leave name working conditions and professional challenges as reasons. Sixty-eight percent of leavers say they have too little preparation time. Sixty percent cited pay as a factor in their decision to leave.

NCTM isn’t the first group attempting to help young educators adapt to their jobs. The National Science Teachers Association increased its efforts to help novices with a new science teachers’ academy aimed at providing professional development and mentoring to secondary educators.

—“Math Group Tries to Help Young Teachers Stay the Course,” by Sean Cavanagh, Education Week, May 7, 2008.